Frustrated Maynard vows to fight RFU ‘dictatorship’
FURIOUS Coventry managing director Phil Maynard has branded RFU plans to impose wage caps in leagues below the Championship from 2018 as “naive and insulting”. As revealed in last week’s
Rugby Paper, an RFU working party headed by board member Malcolm Wharton has recommended limiting gross player payments, including all employment costs, to £150,000 per club in National One, £100,000 in National Two and £50,000 in National Three, with a cessation of player payments in Level 6 and below.
Failure to adhere to new regulations would result in clubs losing valuable RFU funding in relation to travel and grants for infrastructure projects, while clubs could also face sanctions for exceeding declared levels of expenditure.
Coventry, among a number of big name clubs seeking promotion to the Championship, along with Plymouth and Birmingham Moseley, say they will not comply, with Maynard questioning the make-up of the RFU working party.
He told TRP: “It’s sad but not surprising that this sort of dictatorial behaviour from the RFU continues. They tried it with a leagues review which nobody wanted, but they pressed on anyway and lost, and they are trying it again with wage caps.
“You feel the RFU have their own agendas that they have to justify, and while they’re trying to draw a line on player payments somewhere, they’re drawing it in the wrong place.
“Yes, a lot of clubs have got themselves into financial trouble in the past and some have never recovered, but to try and condemn clubs like Coventry, Moseley, Plymouth, Blackheath and others to this division is naive and, frankly, insulting to us.”
Maynard added: “When Coventry were relegated and had our financial problems six years ago it was very difficult to rebuild. But we now have a turnover of £1.3m and feel we can push on again sustainably, but the RFU are trying to tell us we can’t.
“The majority of people on that RFU working party have had little to do with the modern game at our level and there were only three club reps on there, the highest of which was at Level 5, so how can they possibly understand our perspective?
“We’ll ignore their wage cap – as I imagine most clubs in this division will.”
Meanwhile, Coventry have underlined their ambition by appointing former Gloucester coach Nick Walshe as attack coach.
Rugby director Rowland Winter said: “Nick shares our attacking philosophy and this allows us to accelerate the work we’re doing.”